Details

Images

Actors

I was expecting to love this film, an examination of self discovery with Eddie Redmayne playing Einar Wegener, the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, set in 1920s Denmark. And there is a lot to like. Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, who plays his wife, act their Oscar nomination worthy hearts out. The cinematography, costumes, music,make up and ambience are sumptuously gorgeous. But it was all a bit too glossy and perfect, I didn’t feel the struggle that it must have been for Wegener, both in society and within himself. The film was more interested in showing us how the emerging Lilli Elbe learned to copy feminine gestures than in the despair that must have driven him to undergo such a dangerous and experimental surgical procedure.

Beautiful but ultimately lacking, it was all a little too superficial for me and I didn’t feel emotionally connected to any of the characters by the end of the film.